Religious responses to globalization seem to contribute little to the overall globalization critique put forth in venues such as the World Social Forum. This essay suggests that in the struggle about ...
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Religious responses to globalization seem to contribute little to the overall globalization critique put forth in venues such as the World Social Forum. This essay suggests that in the struggle about globalization, religious actors are more important and religious voices more articulate than many have realized. Empirically, this analysis yields a more detailed picture of the directions that “religious rejections of globalization” take. Analytically, it sheds light on the relative significance of religion in the formation of global civil society or at least one sector thereof.Less

Religious Rejections of Globalization

Frank J. Lechner

Published in print: 2005-12-22

Religious responses to globalization seem to contribute little to the overall globalization critique put forth in venues such as the World Social Forum. This essay suggests that in the struggle about globalization, religious actors are more important and religious voices more articulate than many have realized. Empirically, this analysis yields a more detailed picture of the directions that “religious rejections of globalization” take. Analytically, it sheds light on the relative significance of religion in the formation of global civil society or at least one sector thereof.

Having argued in Chs 3 and 4 that there are cosmopolitan principles of civil and political justice and cosmopolitan principles of distributive justice, one is logically led to the question, ‘if one ...
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Having argued in Chs 3 and 4 that there are cosmopolitan principles of civil and political justice and cosmopolitan principles of distributive justice, one is logically led to the question, ‘if one affirms cosmopolitan principles of justice, what kind of political framework (political structures) should one accept— a system of states, or of global political institutions, of autonomous nations (including even statehood)? This chapter seeks to answer these questions. It is arranged in 17 sections: Section I provides a conceptual analysis of some possible political frameworks; the following six sections (II–VI) consider cosmopolitan approaches to the question of how political power should be institutionalized (II), present three possible approaches—intrinsic, right-based, and instrumental (III–V), and examine the nature of the political framework offered by these three approaches (VI); Sections VII–XI analyse five challenges to the cosmopolitan political proposals, first, those voiced by statists (including both realists and those who affirm the ‘society of states’) (VIII–X) and, second, those voiced by those sympathetic to the idea of a global civil society (XI); Sections XII–XVI evaluate four nationalist claims that any defensible account of political institutions should grant autonomy to nations (provide national self-determination), and they aim to defend a cosmopolitan political programme—one in which there are democratic supra-state institutions charged with protecting people’s civil, political, and economic rights—and to rebut the challenges of statists and nationalists or to show that they can be accommodated by cosmopolitans. Section XVII summarizes and concludes that, overall, a cosmopolitan political order should grant a very heavily qualified role to national self-determination.Less

Political Structures

Simon Caney

Published in print: 2005-01-13

Having argued in Chs 3 and 4 that there are cosmopolitan principles of civil and political justice and cosmopolitan principles of distributive justice, one is logically led to the question, ‘if one affirms cosmopolitan principles of justice, what kind of political framework (political structures) should one accept— a system of states, or of global political institutions, of autonomous nations (including even statehood)? This chapter seeks to answer these questions. It is arranged in 17 sections: Section I provides a conceptual analysis of some possible political frameworks; the following six sections (II–VI) consider cosmopolitan approaches to the question of how political power should be institutionalized (II), present three possible approaches—intrinsic, right-based, and instrumental (III–V), and examine the nature of the political framework offered by these three approaches (VI); Sections VII–XI analyse five challenges to the cosmopolitan political proposals, first, those voiced by statists (including both realists and those who affirm the ‘society of states’) (VIII–X) and, second, those voiced by those sympathetic to the idea of a global civil society (XI); Sections XII–XVI evaluate four nationalist claims that any defensible account of political institutions should grant autonomy to nations (provide national self-determination), and they aim to defend a cosmopolitan political programme—one in which there are democratic supra-state institutions charged with protecting people’s civil, political, and economic rights—and to rebut the challenges of statists and nationalists or to show that they can be accommodated by cosmopolitans. Section XVII summarizes and concludes that, overall, a cosmopolitan political order should grant a very heavily qualified role to national self-determination.

This chapter traces the history of NGOs beginning in the late 1980s through 9/11 and the Iraq war. Thematically, this historical account highlights the relationship many NGOs enjoyed with the United ...
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This chapter traces the history of NGOs beginning in the late 1980s through 9/11 and the Iraq war. Thematically, this historical account highlights the relationship many NGOs enjoyed with the United Nations and the representative role they assumed in global civil society. The chapter argues that the historical role of NGOs as representatives of the world's people is not supported by the political and moral requirements of accountability, representativeness, and political intermediation to undertake the function of global governance and should not be viewed as representatives of the world's people.Less

Global Philanthropy and Global Governance : The Problematic Moral Legitimacy of the Relationship between Global Civil Society and the United Nations

Kenneth Anderson

Published in print: 2011-01-13

This chapter traces the history of NGOs beginning in the late 1980s through 9/11 and the Iraq war. Thematically, this historical account highlights the relationship many NGOs enjoyed with the United Nations and the representative role they assumed in global civil society. The chapter argues that the historical role of NGOs as representatives of the world's people is not supported by the political and moral requirements of accountability, representativeness, and political intermediation to undertake the function of global governance and should not be viewed as representatives of the world's people.

This chapter examines the history of civil society activism in India and its link to the international/global civil society. It describes the civil society movements in India including the emergence ...
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This chapter examines the history of civil society activism in India and its link to the international/global civil society. It describes the civil society movements in India including the emergence of new social movements, non-governmental organizations, and the ‘uncivil’ elements in the civil society since 1990. It explains that the new social movements and other civil society organizations in India operated in the same way as their counterparts in other countries because of their refusal to be co-opted by the Indian state.Less

Indian Civil Society and the ‘International’

Mathew Joseph C.

Published in print: 2013-10-01

This chapter examines the history of civil society activism in India and its link to the international/global civil society. It describes the civil society movements in India including the emergence of new social movements, non-governmental organizations, and the ‘uncivil’ elements in the civil society since 1990. It explains that the new social movements and other civil society organizations in India operated in the same way as their counterparts in other countries because of their refusal to be co-opted by the Indian state.

In these two lectures, the author argues that since the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, we have entered a phase of global civil society that is governed by cosmopolitan norms of ...
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In these two lectures, the author argues that since the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, we have entered a phase of global civil society that is governed by cosmopolitan norms of universal justice—norms which are difficult for some to accept as legitimate since they are sometimes in conflict with democratic ideals. In her first lecture, the author argues that although this tension can never be fully resolved, it can be mitigated through the renegotiation of the dual commitments to human rights and sovereign self-determination. Her second lecture develops this idea in detail, with special reference to recent developments in Europe (for example, the banning of Muslim head scarves in France). The European Union has seen the replacement of the traditional unitary model of citizenship with a new model that disaggregates the components of traditional citizenship, making it possible to be a citizen of multiple entities at the same time. The volume also contains an introduction by the editor, and contributions by Bonnie Honig (Northwestern University), Will Kymlicka (Queens University), and Jeremy Waldron (Columbia School of Law).Less

Another Cosmopolitanism

Seyla Benhabib

Published in print: 2006-11-16

In these two lectures, the author argues that since the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, we have entered a phase of global civil society that is governed by cosmopolitan norms of universal justice—norms which are difficult for some to accept as legitimate since they are sometimes in conflict with democratic ideals. In her first lecture, the author argues that although this tension can never be fully resolved, it can be mitigated through the renegotiation of the dual commitments to human rights and sovereign self-determination. Her second lecture develops this idea in detail, with special reference to recent developments in Europe (for example, the banning of Muslim head scarves in France). The European Union has seen the replacement of the traditional unitary model of citizenship with a new model that disaggregates the components of traditional citizenship, making it possible to be a citizen of multiple entities at the same time. The volume also contains an introduction by the editor, and contributions by Bonnie Honig (Northwestern University), Will Kymlicka (Queens University), and Jeremy Waldron (Columbia School of Law).

This chapter examines various assumptions made in thinking about international relations, and various effects of globalization in political economy. It explores the implications of the ethics of care ...
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This chapter examines various assumptions made in thinking about international relations, and various effects of globalization in political economy. It explores the implications of the ethics of care for relations between states, and for the possibilities of global civil society. It suggests how the ethics of care offers promise beyond that found in theories of justice.Less

Care and Justice in the Global Context

Virginia Held

Published in print: 2005-12-01

This chapter examines various assumptions made in thinking about international relations, and various effects of globalization in political economy. It explores the implications of the ethics of care for relations between states, and for the possibilities of global civil society. It suggests how the ethics of care offers promise beyond that found in theories of justice.

This chapter examines the prospects for egalitarian citizenship at a global level. Both citizenship and the hopes of a substantive egalitarian politics are tied to the fate of the nation-state. ...
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This chapter examines the prospects for egalitarian citizenship at a global level. Both citizenship and the hopes of a substantive egalitarian politics are tied to the fate of the nation-state. Andrew Linklater asserts that a nascent global citizenship regime is epitomised by the universal system of human rights, an ethic of global responsibility, and a worldwide public sphere or ‘global civil society’. This chapter examines this latter narrative in order to investigate the potential of such a citizenship regime to serve as a vessel for democratic egalitarian politics. In the global South and also in the rich West, neoliberalism has, if anything, widened and entrenched the dualism of liberal citizenship: whilst civil rights (and property rights in particular) are aggressively extended, there is serious resistance to the realisation of socio-economic rights. This chapter concludes by pointing to some of the ways in which a putative regime of global citizenship is being contested to more radical ends, in an attempt to make ‘global’ citizenship a category of equality rather than one of hierarchy.Less

Equality and citizenship in global perspective

Chris Armstrong

Published in print: 2006-06-30

This chapter examines the prospects for egalitarian citizenship at a global level. Both citizenship and the hopes of a substantive egalitarian politics are tied to the fate of the nation-state. Andrew Linklater asserts that a nascent global citizenship regime is epitomised by the universal system of human rights, an ethic of global responsibility, and a worldwide public sphere or ‘global civil society’. This chapter examines this latter narrative in order to investigate the potential of such a citizenship regime to serve as a vessel for democratic egalitarian politics. In the global South and also in the rich West, neoliberalism has, if anything, widened and entrenched the dualism of liberal citizenship: whilst civil rights (and property rights in particular) are aggressively extended, there is serious resistance to the realisation of socio-economic rights. This chapter concludes by pointing to some of the ways in which a putative regime of global citizenship is being contested to more radical ends, in an attempt to make ‘global’ citizenship a category of equality rather than one of hierarchy.

This chapter begins with a brief outline on the Internet Governance Forum concept and focuses on the deficit of democracy in international institutions. It continues with the introduction, detailed ...
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This chapter begins with a brief outline on the Internet Governance Forum concept and focuses on the deficit of democracy in international institutions. It continues with the introduction, detailed description, and analysis of global civil society and multistakeholder governance. The chapter represents the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) as the coral reef of political opportunity and proposes a new transnational policy network. It also explores the WSIS civil society organizational structure along with the role of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and various network diagrams for understanding the concept of Internet governance through the multistakeholder concept more thoroughly. The chapter concludes by describing the Internet Governance Caucus concept, along with illustrations.Less

Civil Society Mobilization

Milton L. Mueller

Published in print: 2010-09-03

This chapter begins with a brief outline on the Internet Governance Forum concept and focuses on the deficit of democracy in international institutions. It continues with the introduction, detailed description, and analysis of global civil society and multistakeholder governance. The chapter represents the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) as the coral reef of political opportunity and proposes a new transnational policy network. It also explores the WSIS civil society organizational structure along with the role of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and various network diagrams for understanding the concept of Internet governance through the multistakeholder concept more thoroughly. The chapter concludes by describing the Internet Governance Caucus concept, along with illustrations.

The insistence that a just war can only be waged by a “legitimate authority” is generally accepted as central to just-war argument and the traditional construal of this tenet has been conspicuously ...
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The insistence that a just war can only be waged by a “legitimate authority” is generally accepted as central to just-war argument and the traditional construal of this tenet has been conspicuously state-centric. The realities of war in the modern world have increasingly made the interpretation and application of this stipulation complex and controversial. In sketching some of these difficulties, this chapter broaches some ways of refining our understanding of it by proposing a linkage between just war theory and the concept of a “global civil society” which not only ideally lends a cosmopolitan angle to the idea of authority but also contends that there is a democratic bias within that idea when it is properly understood. The role of the United Nations in the 1999 Kosovo intervention and the 2003 Iraq war is discussed to indicate how, in this respect, just war theory in the modern world ideally requires reform in the global order for its proper application.Less

In Humanity's Name: Democracy and the Right to Wage War

Mark Evans

Published in print: 2005-06-15

The insistence that a just war can only be waged by a “legitimate authority” is generally accepted as central to just-war argument and the traditional construal of this tenet has been conspicuously state-centric. The realities of war in the modern world have increasingly made the interpretation and application of this stipulation complex and controversial. In sketching some of these difficulties, this chapter broaches some ways of refining our understanding of it by proposing a linkage between just war theory and the concept of a “global civil society” which not only ideally lends a cosmopolitan angle to the idea of authority but also contends that there is a democratic bias within that idea when it is properly understood. The role of the United Nations in the 1999 Kosovo intervention and the 2003 Iraq war is discussed to indicate how, in this respect, just war theory in the modern world ideally requires reform in the global order for its proper application.

This final chapter asks the question ‘Is global civil society a political myth or a vibrant social reality?’ It is concluded that global civil society will not become a reality until there is ...
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This final chapter asks the question ‘Is global civil society a political myth or a vibrant social reality?’ It is concluded that global civil society will not become a reality until there is agreement about the need for social justice based on an equitable redistribution of the world’s wealth. That is not simply an economic policy objective: it involves a need to reframe the issue within the context of social justice. Global civil society can be the agent of that change. The significance of the idea of global civil society comes down to its symbolic power to influence the way people think about the developing world. Its capacity to transform world poverty is primarily constituted in its capacity to be a communicative social change actor that promotes a cause that only international governance has the resources to tackle.Less

Global civil society: myth or reality?

Fred Powell

Published in print: 2013-04-24

This final chapter asks the question ‘Is global civil society a political myth or a vibrant social reality?’ It is concluded that global civil society will not become a reality until there is agreement about the need for social justice based on an equitable redistribution of the world’s wealth. That is not simply an economic policy objective: it involves a need to reframe the issue within the context of social justice. Global civil society can be the agent of that change. The significance of the idea of global civil society comes down to its symbolic power to influence the way people think about the developing world. Its capacity to transform world poverty is primarily constituted in its capacity to be a communicative social change actor that promotes a cause that only international governance has the resources to tackle.

This chapter considers theoretical approaches to the study of networks, including conceptions of networking as a political practice. It briefly considers claims that have been made about networks and ...
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This chapter considers theoretical approaches to the study of networks, including conceptions of networking as a political practice. It briefly considers claims that have been made about networks and the emergence of global civil society. It discusses global justice networks (GJNs), and their key characteristics of diversity, creativity, convergence, scale politics, and the creation of spaces of participatory democracy and solidarity. It argues that they do not ‘act’ as a coherent actor in the manner of social movements, although some GJNs may come together, in particular times and places, in order to prosecute specific campaigns or global days of action.Less

Networks, global civil society and global justice networks

Paul RoutledgeAndrew Cumbers

Published in print: 2009-03-01

This chapter considers theoretical approaches to the study of networks, including conceptions of networking as a political practice. It briefly considers claims that have been made about networks and the emergence of global civil society. It discusses global justice networks (GJNs), and their key characteristics of diversity, creativity, convergence, scale politics, and the creation of spaces of participatory democracy and solidarity. It argues that they do not ‘act’ as a coherent actor in the manner of social movements, although some GJNs may come together, in particular times and places, in order to prosecute specific campaigns or global days of action.

At the center of much of this chapter's disagreement with Jeremy Waldron is interpreting Immanuel Kant's doctrine of jus cosmopoliticum, which can be rendered into English as “cosmopolitan right” or ...
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At the center of much of this chapter's disagreement with Jeremy Waldron is interpreting Immanuel Kant's doctrine of jus cosmopoliticum, which can be rendered into English as “cosmopolitan right” or “cosmopolitan law.” Kant's doctrine of universal hospitality opens up a space of discourse. The discourse of hospitality moves from the language of morals to that of juridical right. No matter how limited in scope the right of hospitality may be, Kant's three articles of “Perpetual Peace,” taken together, articulate principles of legal cosmopolitanism, according to which the individual is not only a moral being who is a member of a universal moral community but is also a person entitled to a certain status in a global civil society. Referring to “hospitality” as signifying all human rights claims that are cross-border in scope, may be more intelligible when viewed against the intentions of Kant's essay as a whole.Less

Hospitality, Sovereignty, and Democratic Iterations

Seyla Benhabib

Published in print: 2006-11-16

At the center of much of this chapter's disagreement with Jeremy Waldron is interpreting Immanuel Kant's doctrine of jus cosmopoliticum, which can be rendered into English as “cosmopolitan right” or “cosmopolitan law.” Kant's doctrine of universal hospitality opens up a space of discourse. The discourse of hospitality moves from the language of morals to that of juridical right. No matter how limited in scope the right of hospitality may be, Kant's three articles of “Perpetual Peace,” taken together, articulate principles of legal cosmopolitanism, according to which the individual is not only a moral being who is a member of a universal moral community but is also a person entitled to a certain status in a global civil society. Referring to “hospitality” as signifying all human rights claims that are cross-border in scope, may be more intelligible when viewed against the intentions of Kant's essay as a whole.

This book provides a critical investigation of what has been termed the ‘global justice movement’. Through a detailed study of a grassroots peasants' network in Asia (People's Global Action); an ...
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This book provides a critical investigation of what has been termed the ‘global justice movement’. Through a detailed study of a grassroots peasants' network in Asia (People's Global Action); an international trade union network (the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mining and General Workers); and the Social Forum process, it analyses some of the global justice movement's component parts, operational networks and their respective dynamics, strategies and practices. The authors argue that the emergence of new globally connected forms of collective action against neoliberal globalisation are indicative of a range of variously place-specific forms of political agency that coalesce across geographic space at particular times, in specific places and in a variety of ways. They also argue that, rather than being indicative of a coherent ‘movement’, such forms of political agency contain many political and geographical fissures and fault-lines, and are best conceived of as ‘global justice networks’: overlapping, interacting, competing and differentially placed and resourced networks that articulate demands for social, economic and environmental justice. Such networks, and the social movements that comprise them, characterise emergent forms of trans-national political agency. The authors argue that the role of key geographical concepts of space, place and scale are crucial to an understanding of the operational dynamics of such networks. Such an analysis challenges key current assumptions in the literature about the emergence of a global civil society.Less

Global Justice Networks : Geographies of Transnational Solidarity

Paul RoutledgeAndrew Cumbers

Published in print: 2009-03-01

This book provides a critical investigation of what has been termed the ‘global justice movement’. Through a detailed study of a grassroots peasants' network in Asia (People's Global Action); an international trade union network (the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mining and General Workers); and the Social Forum process, it analyses some of the global justice movement's component parts, operational networks and their respective dynamics, strategies and practices. The authors argue that the emergence of new globally connected forms of collective action against neoliberal globalisation are indicative of a range of variously place-specific forms of political agency that coalesce across geographic space at particular times, in specific places and in a variety of ways. They also argue that, rather than being indicative of a coherent ‘movement’, such forms of political agency contain many political and geographical fissures and fault-lines, and are best conceived of as ‘global justice networks’: overlapping, interacting, competing and differentially placed and resourced networks that articulate demands for social, economic and environmental justice. Such networks, and the social movements that comprise them, characterise emergent forms of trans-national political agency. The authors argue that the role of key geographical concepts of space, place and scale are crucial to an understanding of the operational dynamics of such networks. Such an analysis challenges key current assumptions in the literature about the emergence of a global civil society.

This chapter summarises the key themes and findings of the book and evaluates current theoretical and empirical debates about global civil society, participative democracy, and transnational ...
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This chapter summarises the key themes and findings of the book and evaluates current theoretical and empirical debates about global civil society, participative democracy, and transnational solidarity within global justice networks (GJNs). It argues that issues of space and scale are critical to the sustainability and future strategy of GJNs. Tensions arise between developing more horizontalist networks that facilitate democracy and grassroots participation, and the need to develop structures that can relay a global consciousness down to local activists. This chapter argues that understanding the potential for GJNs to develop a sustainable politics of international solidarity involves not just understanding the way that the ‘local’ is enmeshed in wider spatial relations, but also, and perhaps more critically, assessing how the ‘global’ is invoked in struggles that take place nationally and locally.Less

Geographies of transnational solidarity

Paul RoutledgeAndrew Cumbers

Published in print: 2009-03-01

This chapter summarises the key themes and findings of the book and evaluates current theoretical and empirical debates about global civil society, participative democracy, and transnational solidarity within global justice networks (GJNs). It argues that issues of space and scale are critical to the sustainability and future strategy of GJNs. Tensions arise between developing more horizontalist networks that facilitate democracy and grassroots participation, and the need to develop structures that can relay a global consciousness down to local activists. This chapter argues that understanding the potential for GJNs to develop a sustainable politics of international solidarity involves not just understanding the way that the ‘local’ is enmeshed in wider spatial relations, but also, and perhaps more critically, assessing how the ‘global’ is invoked in struggles that take place nationally and locally.

The Eichmann trial, much like the Nuremberg trials before it, captured some of the perplexities of the emerging norms of cosmopolitan justice. This chapter discusses that since the United Nations ...
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The Eichmann trial, much like the Nuremberg trials before it, captured some of the perplexities of the emerging norms of cosmopolitan justice. This chapter discusses that since the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, one has entered a phase in the evolution of global civil society which is characterized by a transition from international norms to cosmopolitan norms of justice. Norms of international justice most commonly arise through treaty obligations and bilateral or multilateral agreements among states and their representatives. They regulate relations among states and other principals that are authorized to act as the agents of states in multiple domains, ranging from trade and commerce to war and security, the environment, and the media. Cosmopolitan norms of justice, whatever the conditions of their legal origination, accrue to individuals as moral and legal persons in a worldwide civil society.Less

The Philosophical Foundations of Cosmopolitan Norms

Seyla Benhabib

Published in print: 2006-11-16

The Eichmann trial, much like the Nuremberg trials before it, captured some of the perplexities of the emerging norms of cosmopolitan justice. This chapter discusses that since the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, one has entered a phase in the evolution of global civil society which is characterized by a transition from international norms to cosmopolitan norms of justice. Norms of international justice most commonly arise through treaty obligations and bilateral or multilateral agreements among states and their representatives. They regulate relations among states and other principals that are authorized to act as the agents of states in multiple domains, ranging from trade and commerce to war and security, the environment, and the media. Cosmopolitan norms of justice, whatever the conditions of their legal origination, accrue to individuals as moral and legal persons in a worldwide civil society.

The chapter examines the changing international ethical context within which international organisations pursue their legitimation practices. It argues, first, that legitimacy questions arise for ...
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The chapter examines the changing international ethical context within which international organisations pursue their legitimation practices. It argues, first, that legitimacy questions arise for international organisations for even though many of them were established by states as functional mechanisms to instrumentally address cooperation problems (thus constituting ‘enterprise associations’, in Michael Oakeshott’s words), many have evolved into something more complex that elicits compliance from states not only for instrumental, but also for ethical reasons. Second, it suggests that all international organisations are embedded into two global practices: global civil society, and the society of sovereign states, and their legitimacy depends on coherence with the values embedded in them. For these reasons, legitimacy questions have become a pertinent issue for many international organisations, arising in particular when the ethical reasons for accepting an institution’s authority have become contentious, for example in times of rapid social change.Less

Legitimacy and International Organizations: The Changing Ethical Context

Mervyn Frost

Published in print: 2013-09-26

The chapter examines the changing international ethical context within which international organisations pursue their legitimation practices. It argues, first, that legitimacy questions arise for international organisations for even though many of them were established by states as functional mechanisms to instrumentally address cooperation problems (thus constituting ‘enterprise associations’, in Michael Oakeshott’s words), many have evolved into something more complex that elicits compliance from states not only for instrumental, but also for ethical reasons. Second, it suggests that all international organisations are embedded into two global practices: global civil society, and the society of sovereign states, and their legitimacy depends on coherence with the values embedded in them. For these reasons, legitimacy questions have become a pertinent issue for many international organisations, arising in particular when the ethical reasons for accepting an institution’s authority have become contentious, for example in times of rapid social change.

This chapter explores whether global social movements (GSMs) represent new modes of dissent against neoliberalism and the competent public sphere. To this extent the chapter focuses on how global ...
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This chapter explores whether global social movements (GSMs) represent new modes of dissent against neoliberalism and the competent public sphere. To this extent the chapter focuses on how global social movements have used and applied digital media to advance their diverse types of activism. Concrete examples are taken from a variety of movement activism, such as the Zapatistas and the Arab Spring. The chapter also notes several limitations to GMS activism, not least the propensity of some GSMs to ignore the power of nation states to shape politics.Less

Global social movements: : beyond the competent public sphere?

John Michael Roberts

Published in print: 2014-10-09

This chapter explores whether global social movements (GSMs) represent new modes of dissent against neoliberalism and the competent public sphere. To this extent the chapter focuses on how global social movements have used and applied digital media to advance their diverse types of activism. Concrete examples are taken from a variety of movement activism, such as the Zapatistas and the Arab Spring. The chapter also notes several limitations to GMS activism, not least the propensity of some GSMs to ignore the power of nation states to shape politics.

The place of religion within the civil society has always been a contested issue. Some contend that religion should be separated from the mechanisms of the society while some argue that religion is ...
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The place of religion within the civil society has always been a contested issue. Some contend that religion should be separated from the mechanisms of the society while some argue that religion is indispensable to public morality and good government. In addition to the debates on religion, the concept of ‘political religion’ is also contested as it is a term loaded with ambiguities. Should religion be instrumentalised by politics? Should it be kept away from the political sphere? Is it the case that religions are constitutively political in their different ways, such that their political orientation will always come to light in the public sphere? These ambiguities in the notion of political religion call for caution in addressing the topic in the field of Religious Studies as well as in the field of International Relations. This chapter investigates in what sense religion can legitimately be political. It also considers the implications of this in International Relations. It ponders on whether the emerging global civil society will be secular in the same sense as its nation state predecessors.Less

Political religion: secularity and the study of religion in global civil society

John D'Arcy May

Published in print: 2008-09-03

The place of religion within the civil society has always been a contested issue. Some contend that religion should be separated from the mechanisms of the society while some argue that religion is indispensable to public morality and good government. In addition to the debates on religion, the concept of ‘political religion’ is also contested as it is a term loaded with ambiguities. Should religion be instrumentalised by politics? Should it be kept away from the political sphere? Is it the case that religions are constitutively political in their different ways, such that their political orientation will always come to light in the public sphere? These ambiguities in the notion of political religion call for caution in addressing the topic in the field of Religious Studies as well as in the field of International Relations. This chapter investigates in what sense religion can legitimately be political. It also considers the implications of this in International Relations. It ponders on whether the emerging global civil society will be secular in the same sense as its nation state predecessors.

This book challenges the notion that political activism has gone beyond borders and created a global or transnational civil society. Instead, at the most globally active, purportedly cosmopolitan ...
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This book challenges the notion that political activism has gone beyond borders and created a global or transnational civil society. Instead, at the most globally active, purportedly cosmopolitan groups in the world, international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) organizational practices are deeply tied to national environments, creating great diversity in the way these groups organize themselves, engage in advocacy, and deliver services. The book offers detailed profiles of these “varieties of activism” in the United States, Britain, and France. These three countries are the most popular bases for INGOs, but each provides a very different environment for charitable organizations due to differences in legal regulations, political opportunities, resources, and patterns of social networks. The book's comparisons of leading American, British, and French INGOs reveal strong national patterns in INGO practices, including advocacy, fund-raising, and professionalization. These differences are quite pronounced among INGOs in the humanitarian relief sector and are observable, though less marked, among human rights INGOs. The book finds that national origin helps account for variation in the “transnational advocacy networks” that have received so much attention in international relations. For practitioners, national origin offers an alternative explanation for the frequently lamented failures of INGOs in the field: INGOs are not inherently dysfunctional, but instead remain disconnected because of their strong roots in very different national environments.Less

Borders among Activists : International NGOs in the United States, Britain, and France

Sarah S. Stroup

Published in print: 2012-04-06

This book challenges the notion that political activism has gone beyond borders and created a global or transnational civil society. Instead, at the most globally active, purportedly cosmopolitan groups in the world, international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) organizational practices are deeply tied to national environments, creating great diversity in the way these groups organize themselves, engage in advocacy, and deliver services. The book offers detailed profiles of these “varieties of activism” in the United States, Britain, and France. These three countries are the most popular bases for INGOs, but each provides a very different environment for charitable organizations due to differences in legal regulations, political opportunities, resources, and patterns of social networks. The book's comparisons of leading American, British, and French INGOs reveal strong national patterns in INGO practices, including advocacy, fund-raising, and professionalization. These differences are quite pronounced among INGOs in the humanitarian relief sector and are observable, though less marked, among human rights INGOs. The book finds that national origin helps account for variation in the “transnational advocacy networks” that have received so much attention in international relations. For practitioners, national origin offers an alternative explanation for the frequently lamented failures of INGOs in the field: INGOs are not inherently dysfunctional, but instead remain disconnected because of their strong roots in very different national environments.

A few INGOs have achieved widespread authority in global politics before multiple audiences, but most have not. Scholars and practitioners have demonstrated the importance of INGOs in global ...
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A few INGOs have achieved widespread authority in global politics before multiple audiences, but most have not. Scholars and practitioners have demonstrated the importance of INGOs in global politics, but have paid too little attention to differences in INGO authority and tend to only examine INGOs within particular sectors, or silos. This book shows that, across a range of issue areas, status differences among INGOs determine whether INGOs choose to compete, collaborate, or condemn their targets. Power may be an uncomfortable subject among INGO practitioners and analyses, but, the fact is that authority is concentrated in the hands of a few INGOs.Less

The Authority Trap

Sarah S. StroupWendy H. Wong

Published in print: 2017-09-15

A few INGOs have achieved widespread authority in global politics before multiple audiences, but most have not. Scholars and practitioners have demonstrated the importance of INGOs in global politics, but have paid too little attention to differences in INGO authority and tend to only examine INGOs within particular sectors, or silos. This book shows that, across a range of issue areas, status differences among INGOs determine whether INGOs choose to compete, collaborate, or condemn their targets. Power may be an uncomfortable subject among INGO practitioners and analyses, but, the fact is that authority is concentrated in the hands of a few INGOs.